Rotating restaurant



Jan; 27, 1970 v o. s. JOHNSTON 3,491,496

ROTATING RESTAURANT Original Filed Aflril 22, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYS.

Jan. 27 1970 D. B. JOHNSTON ROTATING RESTAURANT 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed April 22, 1965 INVENT 1 \IXM Mk mm ATTORNEYS.

Jan. 27, 1970 o. B. JOHNSTON 3,491,496

ROTATING RESTAURANT Original Filed April 22, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENT R ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent O 3,491,496 ROTATING RESTAURANT David Bruce Johnston, 132 Skyline Lane, Stamford, Conn. 06903 Continuation of application Ser. No. 450,123, Apr. 22, 1965. This application June 6, 1968, Ser. No. 734,964 Int. Cl. E04!) 1/346; E04h 3/02 US. Cl. 52-65 15 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This specification discloses a rotating restaurant having an annular turntable which is driven by rollers contacting with opposite sides of a downwardly extending flange. The turntable is supported by two sets of wheels arranged in concentric circles about the center of rotation of the turntable. The wheels are fr-ustoconical and have their upper surfaces tangent to a plane that is substantially normal to the axis of rotation of the turntable. The concentric circles are of substantially different radii; and the wheels of the inner circle have a larger angle of taper than those of the outer circle. This eliminates friction and wear of the wheels and the surfaces of the turntable against which the wheels run.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This is a continuation of my copending application Ser. No. 450,123, filed Apr. 22, 1965, and now abandoned. It has been popular to provide restaurants with rotating floors so that diners seated at tables in the restaurant have a change in the scenery that they see from the windows of the restaurant. The wall of the restaurant may rotate as a unit with the floor but it is preferable to have the wall and the windows stationary so that the tables and chairs move into positions from which the diners look out of different windows at different times. This results in variety within the room as well as in the outdoor scenery.

Rotating buildings and rotating floors have been used for various purposes, and such floors are commonly used on stages to effect changes of scenery, but rotating restaurants present unique considerations not found in other construction having floors which turn. Unlike a stage turntable, where the object of the rotation is to effect rapid changes of scenery, a rotating restaurant should make the diners experience changes in position without making them conscious of the movement. Some persons do not like to eat while in motion, particularly while in circular motion; and experience has shown that when the motion, even though slow, has any irregularity, it causes some diners to become ill in a manner similar to motion sickness that is experienced on ships and to some extent, in automobile travel. It is an object of this invention to provide an improved rotating restaurant with a floor that rotates with such uniform motion that diners do not feel the motion and are conscious of it only to the extent that they notice from time to time their change in position.

It is another object of the invention to provide a rotating restaurant with driving mechanism that prevents irregularity of motion at the slow speed required for a retating restaurant where irregularity is likely to result from. backlash in the reduction gearing with its very large speed 3,491,496 Patented Jan. 27, 1970 reduction to obtain the final, desired speed. Such irregularity resulting from play in reduction gearing is commonly referred to as chatter. The rotary motion of this invention is used for rotating restaurants where the tables and chairs are located around the wall of the room, and the wall is stationary and has framed openings (windows) through which a stationary background is visible at some distance from the framed openings. This combination makes any irregularity of motion of the floor especially noticeable.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic, fragmentary plan view illustrating the effect of irregular movement of the rotating floor;

FIGURE 3 is a greatly enlarged, fragmentary, sectional view, partly broken away, of the turntable shown in FIGURE 1;

'FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic View illustrating the shape and orientation of the rollers which support the turntable shown in the other view;

FIGURE 5 is a greatly enlarged, fragmentary, vertical sectional view illustrating the adjustment of the supports for the rollers on which the turntable is carried;

FIGURE 6 is a diagrammatic, fragmentary, top plan view of the turntable shown in FIGURE 3 with the floor of the turntable removed;

FIGURE 7 is a vertical elevation of the turntable driving mechanism shown in FIGURE 6; and

FIGURE 8 is a view similar to FIGURE 7 but looking at the driving mechanism from a position removed from FIGURE 7.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIGURE 1 shows a rotating restaurant including a room 12 having a cylindrical wall 14, a ceiling 16 and a roof 18. This much of the building is stationary and supported from footings or other supporting means in accordance with conventional building construction. The restaurant has a stationary center floor 20 and has an annular floor comprising a turntable 22 which extends from the stationary center floor 20 to the wall 14 with some clearance for both the inner and outer edges of he the turntable 22.

The wall 14 has framed openings consisting of windows 26. The expression framed opening is used herein to designate a window which has vertically extending edges at both sides of the opening, placing a limit on the view which an observer sees when looking through the window. A continuous window extending all around the cylindrical extent of the wall 14 would not come within the meaning of a framed opening as the expression is used in this description.

The turntable 22 is supported on rollers 92, 94, which are in turn supported from a base 32 located under the turntable, this construction being more fully explained in connection with FIGURE 3. Other rollers 96 bear against a circular ring or flange 36 to prevent radial displacement of the turntable 22, and the turntable is rotated by rollers 38 in a manner which will be explained in connection with FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 2 shows a portion of the turntable 22 with facilities for diners located near the wall 14. These fa- 3 cilities include a table 42 and chairs 44 and 45. With the turntable in the position shown in FIGURE 2, persons seated at the table 42 are in a position to look out of a window 26 at objects 47, 48 and 49, which constitute part of the outside scenery.

The floor of a rotating restaurant travels so slowly, that even though the movement is not uniform, there is not enough amplitude in the irregularity of movement to make it likely that any illness of diners is caused by the same inner ear phenomenon as in motion sickness, which is experienced at sea, or in aircraft and some land vehicles. It seems likely that there is some psychological effect that may result from seeing irregular movement close at hand. This theory is better understood by considering the change in view in FIGURE 2 of a diner observing the outside scenery from a location 52. The limit of the scene on one side, resulting from the right-hand frame of the window 26, is represented by the solid line 54.

As the turntable 22 moves in a clockwise direction, indicated by the arrow 56, even a small change in the position of the observer from 52 to 52' makes a large difference in the right-hand limit of the scene, as is evident from the outward projection of the dotted line 54. Because of this leverage or amplifying effect, even small variations in velocity are made very noticeable because the variation that affects the observer is not actually the movement of the right-hand edge of the window 26, but is a variation in the apparent movement from the object 49 and to the left across the object 48. Although this is very apparent to anyone watching the scenery, the effect might not be physically noticeable to a person with his eyes closed or looking in another direction.

If an observer is located at a substantial distance from the wall 14, for example, at a location 62, then the same amount of movement of the turntable, carrying the observer to the location 62', would have little effect upon the change of scenery, as is evident by comparison of the lines of vision 64 and 64' past the right-hand frame of the next window 26.

An analogous effect can be observed personally by anyone who juggles his hand back and forth a short distance in front of ones eyes and at one side of the field of vision, as compared to juggling the hand with the same strokes at arms length from the eyes. A familiar though imperfect example is the effect of amplitude which is experienced when looking through powerful binoculars or moderately powerful telescopes which can not be used satisfactorily unless supported on a tripod or other stationary support. No matter how steadily an observer attempts to hold such an optical instrument, the limiting frame of the device appears to move to such an extent that com fortable observation is impossible.

If the movement of the vertically extending edges of the windows 26 is in only one direction, and is at uniform speed, there is no annoyance or discomfort experienced by persons seated on the chairs 44 and 45 and viewing the scenery outside the window. The construction of this invention includes combinations that insure such uniform movement in spite of the very large gear reduction from an electric motor speed to the slow speed at which a rotating restaurant floor should rotate. In some rotating restaurants, a turntable speed of one revolution per hour has been used; but for floors of very large diameter, this is somewhat fast. It is advantageous to limit the circumferential speed at the periphery of the turntable, this being more significant than the angular speed. A speed of one inch per second is advantageous. These values are given merely by way of illustration and the ideal speed is influenced by various considerations, such as window width, spacing of the diners from the wall, and the distance of the outside scenery from the windows.

FIGURE 3 shows the turntable 22 with a floor 70 supported on a frame consisting of beams 72 extending in a generally radial direction, and other beams 74 which extend transversely of the beams 72. The correlation of the beams 72 and 74 is best shown in FIGURE 6, which illustrates the way in which the frame of the turntable is constructed in sections. For example, a section 76 is made up of two angularly spaced beams 72 connected together at their outer ends by an outer beam 74 and at their inner ends by an inner beam 74'. The frame 76 has a center beam 78 located substantially midway between the beams 72; and has other bracing beams 79 on opposite sides of and spaced from the center beam 78. This center beam 78 and the bracing beams 79 are connected at their opposite ends to the other beams 74 and 74'. The connections are rigid and may consist of welding, rivets, or any other conventional construction.

The entire circular extent of the turntable frame is made up of frames similar to the frame 76 and connected together as shown in FIGURE 6. For example, another frame 80 has beams 82 corresponding to the beams 72. In connecting the frames 76 and 80, the "adjacent beams 72 and 82 of the respective frames are abutted against one another and rigidly secured together. It will be obvious that this construction provides a frame with both its outside and inside perimeters of polygonal shape rather than circular. However, the floor 70 which is placed on top of the turntable frame, is cut to provide the desired circular edges for the turntable, as indicated in dotted lines in FIGURE 6.

There are annular tracks attached to the underside of the turntable frame and constituting part of the frame. These tracks include an outer track 86 and an inner track 88. Each of the tracks 86 and 88 has a flange 90 extending downwardly from the turntable (best shown in FIG- URE 3) and both of the flanges 90 are cylindrical about the center of rotation of the turntable.

There are outer supporting rollers 92 angularly spaced from one another around the outer track 86; and there are corresponding supporting rollers 94 at angularly spaced locations around the inner track 88. These rollers 92 and 94 support the weight of the turntable and the load on the floor 70 of the turntable. In order to prevent any transverse or radial shifting of the turntable, there are thrust rollers 96 located at angularly spaced locations around the length of the inner track 88 in position to contact with the flange 90 of the inner track 88.

Each of the thrust rollers 96 is supported by hearings on a rig or bracket 100 which has a downwardly extending portion 102 with an anchor base 104 secured to a stationary footing 106. This downwardly extending portion 102, of the bracket 100, is sufficiently flexible to yield as necessary to accommodate any irregularity in the concentricity of the cylindrical flange 90 with which the rollers 96 contact. The bracket 100 is secured to the footing 106 by bolts 110 or other suitable fastening means.

In order to avoid slippage of the rollers 92 and 94 on the surfaces of the tracks 86 and 88, the rollers 92 and 94 are made with frustoconical faces; the radius of the roller face, at every point across the width of the face, being proportional to the radial speed of the corresponding part of the track 86 or 88 with which the different points on the roller contact. FIGURE 4 shows the way in which this result is obtained. The peripheral face of the roller 92 is the frustrum of a cone having an axis 116 and an apex at a point 118 located on an axis 120 which is the axis of rotation of the turntable 22. Each of the rollers 94 is also the frustrum of a cone having an axis 126 and an apex at the point 118. The vertical location of the point 118 is in the plane defined by the bottom surfaces of the tracks 86 and 88 (FIGURE 3) on which the rollers 92 and 94 roll.

Because of the slope of the axes of the supporting rollers 92 and 94, it is necessary to support these rollers on special brackets, and it is also necessary to provide for accurate and individual adjustment of the position of each of the supporting rollers 92 and 94 around the entire extent of the turntable so that the highest part of the circumference of each roller is in a common plane and the apex of its frustoconical surface is in this same common plane.

The roller 92 is rotatably supported on a horn or rig consisting of a bracket 130 having a bottom plate 132. This plate 132 is supported from the footing 106 by a bolt 134 screwed into an anchor 136 in the footing 106. The bolt 134 is held firmly in position by a nut 138 clamping a Washer 140 against the top surface of the footing 106; and there are other nuts 142 located above and below the plate 132. The level of the plate 132 can be raised or lowered with respect to the bolt 134 by threading the bolts 142 up and down along the bolt 134. There are similar bolts 134 extending through the bottom plate 132 and anchored in the footing 106 at different positions on the plate 132 so that the plate 132 can be tilted universally by selectively adjusting the nuts on the different bolts, and the level of the plate 132 can be raised or lowered by simultaneously and equally adjusting the nuts on all of the bolts 134 at the same time. There are similar adjustments for all of the rollers 92 and also for the rollers 94.

FIGURE 3 also shows the driving rollers 38 in contact with opposite sides of a cylindrical flange or ring 146 attached to the underside of the turntable frame by bracket 148. This ring 146 is connected with the beams 72 and with other beams of the frame which extend across the ring 146. Because of its rigid connections with the beams 72, and other beams of the frame, the cylindrical ring 146 serves as a part of the turntable frame.

Each of the rollers 38 has an axle 150 which extends into an upper bearing 152 supported by a frame 154 constituting part of a carriage 156, which will be described more fully in connection with FIGURES 7 and 8. The carriages 156 are supported on rods 160; and these rods 160 provide bearings along Which the carriages 156 can move toward and from one another and along which the carriages 156 can move in unison to accommodate any irregularities in the concentricity of the cylindrical ring 146.

Because of the radial thickness of the ring 146, which may be /2" to (these figures being given merely by way of illustration), there is a difference in the peripheral or lineal speed of the rollers 38. It will be evident that the roller 38 which contacts with the inner surface of the driving ring 146 must run at a slower lineal speed than the roller 38 which contacts with the outer surface of the ring, if the drive is to operate without slippage of the rollers on the ring surface. The carriages 156 and the rods 160 are supported from a frame 164 made up of various beams 165 and 166 extending in dilferent directions and welded together to constitute a box frame which is adjustably supported from a footing 168 by adjustable anchor bolts 170 which can be of the same construction as illustrated in FIGURE 5.

FIGURES 7 and 8 show the driving mechanism for rotating the turntable. Each roller 38 is driven by reduction gearing. Each reduction gearing is enclosed in a different housing 180 which constitutes a part of each of the carriages 156. There is a shaft 182 at the high speed end of the speed reducer and this shaft 182 has pulleys 184 rigidly secured to it for driving the shaft with a multi V-belt 186. The reduction gearing in each housing 180 is conventional and therefore has backlash.

The V-belt 186 (FIGURE 8) passes around other pulleys 188 (FIGURE 7) on a jack shaft 190 which rotates in bearings 192 at opposite ends of the frame 164.

The pulleys 188 and 184 are in alignment with one another when the corresponding carriage 156 is at a mid location along its rods 160. The total motion of each of the carriages 156 along its rods 160 is not sufficient to cause any objectionable misalignment of the pulleys 188 and 184 and it is not necessary, therefore, to provide for any axial movement of the pulleys 188 or the jack shaft 190. The bearings 192 serve as both radial load bearings and also as thrust bearings to prevent endwise 6 movement of the jack shaft 190 and the pulleys 188 which are secured to the jack shaft.

At one end of the jack shaft 190, there is an extension of the shaft and there are two other pulleys 200 secured to the jack shaft for driving the jack shaft from a motor 202, best shown in FIGURE 6. The motor 202 has reduction gearing 204 at one end of its housing, and has pulleys 206 which are operatively connected to the jack shaft 190 by V-belts'210.

Referring again to FIGURE 7 there is a tie rod 216 on each side of the frames 154 and this tie rod 216 has a head or nut 218 at one end and a hand wheel 220 at the other end. The hand wheel 220 has a threaded hub which fits over screw threads 222 on the rod 216. The hand wheel 220 compresses a coil spring 224 against one of the frames 154 so as to push this frame 154 toward the right in FIGURE 7 and the opposite reaction of the spring 224 pulls the rod 216 toward the left so that the nut 218 urges the carriage 180, with which it contacts, toward the left in FIGURE 7. Thus the rollers 38 are urged toward one another by the pressure of the spring 224 and this controls the pressure of the rollers 38 against the driving ring and the resulting friction.

In order to obtain a more straight line thrust of the rollers 38 toward one another, there is another rod 226 secured to an extension 228 of one of the carriages 156.v

This rod 226 is threaded for a substantial portion of its length. There are two nuts 230 clamped against opposite sides of the extension 228 which projects from one of the carriages 156.

The rod 226 extends through another extension 234 projecting from the right hand carriage 156 and there is a spring 236 compressed betwen this extension 234 and another nut 238 on the threaded portion of the rod 226. The compression of this spring 236, which is adjustable by moving the nut 238, provides a thrust at the lower ends of the carriages 156 for compensating the ofi-center pull of the rod 216 so as to make the pressure of the rollers 38 against the driving ring more uniform across the full width of these driving rollers 38.

The rods .160 for the right hand carriage 156, in FIGURE 7, are supported at opposite ends by bearings 242 and 244 and the rods for the left hand carriage 156 are supported from the box frame 164 by bearings 242' and 244'.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that both of the rollers 38 are driven from the same motor 220 and that the motion transmitting connections between the motor 220 and the separate rollers 38 are common as far as the jack shaft 190.

From the jack shaft there is a separate drive to the right hand roller 38 through the pulleys 188 at the right hand end of the jack shaft 190; and there is a separate drive to the left hand roller 38 from the pulleys 188 toward the left hand end of the jack shaft .193. The pulleys 188 on the jack shaft all turn at the same angular speed since they are rigidly connected to the jack shaft.

The V-belts which transmit power from the jack shaft pulleys 188 to the pulleys 184 on the carriages 156 tend to drive the rollers 38 at the same lineal speed but these rollers cannot run at the same lineal speed without slipping on the drive ring because the circumference of the drive ring is shorter on its inner side than on its outer side because of the difference in the length of the radius of each of these surfaces from the center of rotation. Thus the roller 38 which is in contact with the inner face of the drive ring 146 tends to drive the ring faster than does the other roller and this increases the load on the right hand or inner roller 38 so that there is a greater pull on the V-belts which drive the right hand roller.

The greater load on the V-belts which drive the right hand roller 38 causes these belts to pull down further into the grooves of the pulleys 184 and 188 in which the belts run and this decreases the effective radius of the driving pulleys 188 more than it does the effective radius of the larger pulleys 184-with the result that there is a decrease in the speed at which the larger pulleys 184 are driven. Thus the right-hand roller 38 runs at a slower lineal speed than the left-hand roller 38.

Since any decrease in the speed of the right-hand roller 38 reduces the load on the driving belt, the belt moves out somewhat in the pulley grooves and this tends to increase the speed of the pulley. Thus there is an automatic compensation which causes the V-belt to settle into the grooves of the pulleys just enough to cause the roller 38 to drive the ring 146 at the same rotative speed as it is being driven by the outer roller 38. The outer roller 38 can be considered a retarding device for limiting the speed at which the driving ring 146 of the turntable is driven by the inner roller 38 because it is the speed of the outer roller 38 which determines how fast the driving ring 146 can travel without increasing the load on the inner roller 38 and starting the automatic compensating action of V-belts which determine the speed at which the inner roller 38 actually rotates.

Thus the driving mechanism illustrated causes both of the rollers 38, though driven by the same motor, to run at slightly different peripheral or lineal speeds which compensate for the difference in the radius of the cylindrical surfaces on opposite sides of the driving ring; and the turntable is driven by the friction rollers 38 without slippage of either roller on the driving ring. In the preferred construction, there is a resilient plastic tire on the face of each of the driving rollers 38 for quiet operation and for increased friction. The preferred material is neoprene but other material having equivalent, resiliency may also be used.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, but some changes can be made and some features can be used in different combinations.

What is claimed is:

1. A rotating restaurant including a room having a stationary wall with framed openings therein through which diners can view scenery outside the room, a turntable forming a floor of the room around at least a part of the room that is near the stationary wall, accommodations for diners including tables and chairs on the turntable and along the stationary wall in position for diners seated in the chairs to look out through the framed openings at the outside scenery, a flange extending around the annular extent of the turntable, a motor, motion-transmitting mechanism driven by the motor and including a rotating driving element in contact with the flange on one side thereof for rotating the turntable, said rotating driving element being driven by the motor through a speed reduction gearin" of a type having backlash, said reduction gearing being interposed between said rotating driving element and the motor for reducing the motor speed to a slow turntable speed, and retarding means including another rotating element in contact with the other side of the flange, said other rotating element being drivingly linked to the motor through a second, separate speed reduction gearing interposed between said other rotating element and the motor, each of the rotating elements turning at a peripheral speed substantially equal to the peripheral speed of the flange surface with which it contacts, the retarding means increasing the load on said rotating driving element and taking up said backlash whereby chatter in the slow movement of the turntable is prevented.

2. The rotating restaurant described in claim 1 characterized by the flange being cylindrical and extending downward from the turntable, the rotating driving element being a roller that contacts with the flange, and the other rotating element of the retarding mean being another roller that contacts with the flange and that tends to drive the flange at a different speed from the driving effect of the first roller, and yielding means limiting the turntable drive by the faster driving roller to that of the slower driving roller.

3. The rotating restaurant described in claim 1 characterized by at least one of the rotating elements being a riction roller that contacts with one side of the flange.

4. The rotating resaurant described in claim 3 characterized by the other rotating element being a second friction roller in contact with the other side of the flange.

5. The rotating restaurant described in claim 4 characterized by the flange being substantially cylindrical with its center of curvature substantially coincident with the axis of rotation of the turntable, both of the rollers being driven by said motor; the roller in contact with the radially inward surface of the flange being the roller that tends to drive the turntable faster because of the lesser circumference of the inside surface of the flange as compared to the outside surface, and the roller in contact with the radially outward surface of the flange being the roller for retarding the speed of rotation of the turntable.

. 6. The rotating restaurant described in claim 5 characterized by the motion-transmitting mechanism for each roller including a different pulley and a V-belt drive of the same speed ratio, the speeds of'the rollers being equalized with the lineal speed of the opposite surfaces of th flange by pulling of the V-belt for the inner roller deeper into its pulleys.

7. The rotating restaurant described in claim 5 characterized by the motion-transmitting mechanism including a speed reducer driven by the motor for substantially reducing the speed of the drive, a jack shaft driven from the low speed end of the speed reducer, V-belt pulleys at fixed axially spaced locations on the jack shaft, a V-belt pulley mechanically connected with each of the rollers for driving the roller, the pulley of each of the rollers being in substantial alignment with a different one of the pulleys on the jack shaft, and a different V-belt driving each of the roller pulleys from the aligned pulley on the jack shaft.

8. The rotating restaurant described in claim 7 characterized by the pulley and belt drive of each of the rollers having pulley sizes that effect a further reduction in speed to both of the rollers.

9. The rotating restaurant described in claim 7 characterized by separate carriages on which each of the rollers are supported, bearings on which the carriages are movable toward and from one another to vary the pressure of the rollers against the flange and on which the carriages are movable together toward and from the center of rotation of the turntable to compensate tolerances in the concentricity of the flange.

10. The rotating restaurant described in claim 9 characterized by adjustable spring means urging the carriages to move toward the flange.

11. The rotating restaurant described in claim 10 characterized by the spring means including different springs at different horizontal levels with the locations and strengths of the spring means correlated to maintain a substantially horizontal force urging the rollers toward one another and toward the opposite sides of the flange.

12. A rotating restaurant including a room having a wall, and a floor including an annular turntable, the outer circumference of which extends substantially to the wall, a fixed base under the turntable and having two sets of wheels, arranged in concentric circles about the center of rotation of the turntable, the wheels of each set being in spaced relation and being frustoconical, said wheels having upper surfaces thereof tangent to a plane that is substantially normal to the axis of rotation, the concen= tric circles having substantially different radii and the wheels of the innermost set having a greater angle of taper than those of the outermost set, annular surfaces on the bottom of the turntable by which the turntable is supported by said wheels, and horizontal restraining means including a cylindrical element cooperating with a circle of rollers that bear against the cylindrical element, one of the cooperating horizontal restraining means being secured to the turntable and the other to the fixed base.

13. The rotating restaurant described in claim 12 characterized by each of the wheels being carried by bearings on a bracket, detachable fastening means connecting the brackets with the base, the fastening means being adjustable to align the wheels to bring their top surfaces into a common plane for contact with the annular surface on the bottom of the turntable, and the horizontal restraining means including a resilient support for the rollers that yields to compensate for any deviation in the flange from a circle concentric with the axis of rotation of the turntable.

14. The rotating restaurant described in claim 12 characterized by the resilient support including brackets secured to a fixed base and having upwardly extending parts that bend to allow for eccentricity of the flange, and a stationary floor within the space at the center of the turntable.

15. The rotating restaurant described in claim 12 characterized by driving means for rotating the turntable including a flange that is circular with its center of curvature substantially coincident with the axis of rotation of the turntable, both of the rollers being driven by the same motor and with the rollers in contact with opposite surfaces of the flange, the roller which contacts with the inner face of the flange tending to drive the turntable 10 faster than the roller which is in contact with the outer face of the flange, and yielding means for bringing both of the rollers to a circumferential speed equal to the lineal speeds of the faces of the flange with which the rollers contact so as to avoid slippage of the rollers on the flange.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,764,783 10/1956 Teller 5265 2,890,545 6/1959 Fiddler 248188.4 2,902,871 9/1959 Mooar 74206 X 3,091,815 6/1963 Krawiec 52--64 X 3,100,099 8/1963 'Schaefer 248188.4 3,125,189 3/1964 Graham 5265 3,245,178 4/1966 Clark 52-65 FOREIGN PATENTS 489,789 8/,1938 Great Britain.

FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner P. C. FAW, JR., Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

